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anyone ever bought anything from...

def chrisdef chris
edited February 2013 in Chit chat
from clicking on a pop-up, or random unconnected ad on a web page? I mean actually parted with money from the influence one of these things? my rational logic is telling me at no sane person in the history of the Internet has ever seen a random pop up, or seen a random ad for ...dunno... 'wacky socks' and gone "brilliant, just what i need" and made a purchase.

Or am I underestimating the alluring power of these things? just something that occurred to me the other day...
Post edited by def chris on
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Comments

  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited February 2013
    def chris wrote: »
    from clicking on a pop-up, or random unconnected ad on a web page? I mean actually parted with money from the influence one of these things? my rational logic is telling me at no sane person in the history of the Internet has ever seen a random pop up, or seen a random ad for ...dunno... 'wacky socks' and gone "brilliant, just what i need" and made a purchase.

    Or am I underestimating the alluring power of these things? just something that occurred to me the other day...

    I guess it's similar to TV advertising - building a brand awareness?
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  • Maroc's Astral ProjectionMaroc's Astral Projection
    edited February 2013
    Like cold calling and spam emails this type of selling works on the principle that if you reach enough people someone is going to think 'ah, that's just what I need'.

    Also, never underestimate the stupidy of the human race :grin:
  • def chrisdef chris
    edited February 2013
    fogartylee wrote: »
    I guess it's similar to TV advertising - building a brand awareness?

    Yeah fair enough, didn't really consider that...pop ups though, does anyone even look at them? I just close them , before theyve even loaded most of the time. Be interesting to know what % of a firms sales come direct from the pop ups
  • def chrisdef chris
    edited February 2013
    Maroc's Astral Projection wrote: »
    Like cold calling and spam emails this type of selling works on the principle that if you reach enough people someone is going to think 'ah, that's just what I need'.

    Also, never underestimate the stupidy of the human race :grin:
    that's it really, I don't understand how anyone could be stupid enough to get sucked in by this stuff. How can anyone suddenly order 8 non-stick frying pans off a site theyve never heard of, half way through a browsing session.:-)

    Spam emails too... Anyone who actually buys stuff off one cannot be right in the head?
  • Rebelstar without a causeRebelstar without a cause
    edited February 2013
    I hate cold calling, I think it's extremely rude. Anyone who knocks on my door trying to sell me something gets a face full of door! :D
  • snigfarpsnigfarp
    edited February 2013
    def chris wrote: »
    Yeah fair enough, didn't really consider that...pop ups though, does anyone even look at them? I just close them , before theyve even loaded most of the time. Be interesting to know what % of a firms sales come direct from the pop ups

    The only effect that intrusive advertising has on me is to make me avoid the sites that use it. I close them like you do, but I really ought to let them play for long enough to show me what companies I should avoid buying from. I've occasionally bought stuff from the non-intrusive adverts like the ones in Google search results, though.
  • guesserguesser
    edited February 2013
    People still send money by Western Union to Mr Umbongo in the hope of getting the TEN MILLION US DOLLARS that the dead president left in the Nigerian state bank... I think it's safe to say spam and pop up ads must have some return on investment :)
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • fogfog
    edited February 2013
    I guess there is money in it.. or else companies wouldn't run infomercials etc..
    the classic thing being , the blokes who used to advertise stuff at markets.. you know the sort of thing ... painting tools... car polish (and they have a car door) .. it's all making you think you want something..

    classic one being the juicer for say orange juice... you think great.. it's healthy etc... the catch is you have to squeeze a shed load of oranges to get a decent amount.. so when they are handing out samples.. notice how small the cups are , thats on purpose :)

    someone I know buys a lot from the shopping channel.. I rarely look at it, but every so often I look at it.. then do 2 minutes of goggling to find the same thing cheaper a lot

    apple are masters of it really.. it's the WANT factor... not need..I'm in the process of looking into getting something made up currently, but well it's no use if no one wants to buy it

    music software is a nightmare for it.. their marketing departments in some cases are VERY sneaky.. e.g. offer an exclusive offer.. then offer again to others later..
    I guess it's no different from them furniture places or clothes shops with their constant sales..

    my brother in laws friend does drunken ebaying for a laugh... he will find a totally random item for 1p.. and bid on, for a bit of fun..e.g. a trombone, he ended up winning for ?2-3 of something... and it's now on his garden fence.. totally random items he has no interest in :)

    he gave them a belfast sink last time to use as a flower bed last time they visited.. he used to dive for a living recovering stuff, so maybe it's just the land version of the same.
  • joefishjoefish
    edited February 2013
    The real problem is the low cost of putting them up. The actual cost of adding a graphic to a web page in negligible, and the viewer covers the cost of receiving it as part of their internet package. The same is true of sending out emails - compared to paying actual postage it's a doddle.

    So only if one in a million people is daft enough to fall for it, you cover your costs. If you actually had to pay for a stamp on each spam email or pop-up advert, companies would be a lot more cautious about where they send them.
    Joefish
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  • serbalgiserbalgi
    edited February 2013
    def chris wrote: »
    I don't understand how anyone could be stupid enough to get sucked in by this stuff. How can anyone suddenly order 8 non-stick frying pans off a site theyve never heard of, half way through a browsing session.:-)

    Probability. What about shopping on the road (near traffic lights)? I have been offered cheese, fish or globes (WTF!) half way to work in a far country.
  • ADJBADJB
    edited February 2013
    joefish wrote: »
    If you actually had to pay for a stamp on each spam email or pop-up advert, companies would be a lot more cautious about where they send them.

    Doesn't seem to bother Virgin, Sky, Insurance companies, Credit card companies ect ect who send me endless real mail which has at least some postage paid on it.
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited February 2013
    It's a success story for a few companies that spam like feck, the companies making e-cigs like Blu for instance.

    I almost clicked one of the many million Blu Cig ads a few years back just cos' I was curious, but I never did. Now look at them, electronic cigs are very successful now, and with that successes the pop ups and spam appear to have vanished.

    So it does work to a certain extent, there's a shop in town about half an hour away from me that sells nothing but electronic cigs from disposable ones to specialist build your own type kits, and about 8 million flavours of vapour juice that you put in them.

    Funnily enough though Blu e-cigs are the crappest ones you can buy, even though they're pretty much the originals. I got a disposable one a few months back, and it was fine for a while, but it started tasting awful way before it was used up. Everyone I know who uses e-cigs says to avoid Blu's like the plague.
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  • ccowleyccowley
    edited February 2013
    ADJB wrote: »
    Doesn't seem to bother Virgin, Sky, Insurance companies, Credit card companies ect ect who send me endless real mail which has at least some postage paid on it.
    Indeed. It's big business and there's a whole specialised field of statisticians working on algorithms, databases and software to calculate your "propensity to buy" a particular product after a given number of communications, the value to the seller if you do buy, and the cost of each communication.

    I did some development work on some marking-leading software a few years ago in that field. The volume of data stored about people, and the complexity of the algorithms used to select people specific mailings are impressive (if impressive is the right word). I'm in the Mail Preference Service myself, and it does cut down the vast majority of that guff. Highly recommend it to everyone (apart those people who enjoy receiving unsolicted marketing material - which the industry seems to think do exist for some reason!).
  • beanzbeanz
    edited February 2013
    Never underestimate the stupidity of humans.

    ..there are still people who get scammed by Nigerians.
  • STeaMSTeaM
    edited February 2013
    guesser wrote: »
    People still send money by Western Union to Mr Umbongo in the hope of getting the TEN MILLION US DOLLARS that the dead president left in the Nigerian state bank... I think it's safe to say spam and pop up ads must have some return on investment :)

    To be fair, he must be worth a penny or three...I mean, the guy has a drink named after him.
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    edited February 2013
    What I really hate is when websites try to prevent you using the back button. You press back and the page reloads. Its more of a problem on IE than it is the other browsers who I assume have acknowledged this problem and have taken steps to minimise this effect.

    As for buying from popup adds, never. As others have suggested merely seeing a company appear in a popup makes me think they must be shady, and puts me off.
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  • MattLambMattLamb
    edited February 2013
    beanz wrote: »
    Never underestimate the stupidity of humans.

    ..there are still people who get scammed by Nigerians.

    One precaution is to only ever deal with members of the Nigerian royal family.
  • def chrisdef chris
    edited February 2013
    the nigerian scam things are slightly different because they're blatantly attempts at fraud. I can kind of see how an unsuspecting granny might fall prey to those (not stereotyping, I'm sure there's a lot of wise grannies that don't).

    But with popups, even with popup blocker I can't stop sites like mediafire (which I use a fair bit) from churning them out. Worryingly some even get virus blocked reports from my IE security.
  • milemile
    edited February 2013
    what can be very annoying are adverts with sound that make you jump
  • fogfog
    edited February 2013
    mile wrote: »
    what can be very annoying are adverts with sound that make you jump

    they call it perceived loudness, with volume.. it's a trick to grab your attention.. they max that out.. so although the same volume your ears hear it as more.adverts you have legal volume boundaries.. but it's a way to bend the rules a little.
  • thx1138thx1138
    edited February 2013
    I once bought what I now know to be a Famiclone from a t.v sellavision channel I happened to tune into, and actually I was quite pleased with it.
  • guesserguesser
    edited February 2013
    def chris wrote: »
    But with popups, even with popup blocker I can't stop sites like mediafire (which I use a fair bit) from churning them out.
    Really, I haven't seen a pop-up ad for years!
    def chris wrote: »
    IE
    aha, yes, I see your problem now :p
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • MattLambMattLamb
    edited February 2013
    thx1138 wrote: »
    I once bought what I now know to be a Famiclone from a t.v sellavision channel I happened to tune into, and actually I was quite pleased with it.

    I bought a similar thing from an ad shown in a Sunday newspaper supplement some 15 years ago. Please with mine too. Just sad I left it at a girl's house soon after buying it and haven't seen either of them for years!
  • fogfog
    edited February 2013
    thx1138 wrote: »
    I once bought what I now know to be a Famiclone from a t.v sellavision channel I happened to tune into, and actually I was quite pleased with it.


    I was clueless , so looked it up..

    http://famicloneguide.weebly.com/famiclones.html
    lovin the "Poly station" , their plagiarism has no bounds :)

    just saw the sunday papers mentioned. An inlaw gets them small half sized catalogs.. ya know the sort.. "trendy" slip on shoes etc.. with wondrous(?) gadgets in.
  • ccowleyccowley
    edited February 2013
    fog wrote: »
    they call it perceived loudness, with volume.. it's a trick to grab your attention.. they max that out.. so although the same volume your ears hear it as more.adverts you have legal volume boundaries.. but it's a way to bend the rules a little.
    The words are definitely English. The sentences, however, appear to be pure gibberish.
  • def chrisdef chris
    edited February 2013
    ads on tv are something like 25% louder than the programs, apparently. they're definitely louder by some degree. Seems like everything about advertising is designed to cause maximum annoyance to the 'victim'
    guesser wrote: »
    Really, I haven't seen a pop-up ad for years!


    aha, yes, I see your problem now :p
    :-P

    Somehow manged to get a pop up yesterday on my iPad , thats never happened before iirc.
  • guesserguesser
    edited February 2013
    ccowley wrote: »
    The words are definitely English. The sentences, however, appear to be pure gibberish.

    Quite what any of this has to do with NOISY BROWSER ADS is anyone's guess :smile:
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • guesserguesser
    edited February 2013
    def chris wrote: »
    ads on tv are something like 25% louder than the programs, apparently. they're definitely louder by some degree.

    They aren't supposed to be. There was an Ofcom ruling a couple of years back that was supposed to stop them doing this and there was compliance for a while. Lately however I've noticed the comression creeping back up again. Some channels are worse than others...
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • FrankTFrankT
    edited February 2013
    If you turn up your popup blocker settings in IE, it will block all popups. Well, almost all. It still doesn't deal with the java ones that scroll on the screen.
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  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited February 2013
    FrankT wrote: »
    If you turn up your popup blocker settings in IE, it will block all popups. Well, almost all. It still doesn't deal with the javascript ones that scroll on the screen. - because they aren't popups...

    fixed for you...
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